Associate Scientist-Post-Harvest Management and Value Addition

### Key skills •Experience with value-chain analysis, business mo •model development and market linkage approaches. ### Additional/Preferred Skills Experience with value-chain analysis, business mo model development and market linkage approaches. ### Preferred Qualifications PhD in Post-Harvest Technology, Horticulture Food Science and Technology, Agricultural Process Engineering •or a closely related discipline with at least Associate Scientist - Post-Harvest Management and Value Addition ICRISAT seeks applications from dynamic and motivated Indian nationals for the post ofAssociate Scientist - Post-Harvest Management and Value Addition.The incumbent will to lead the design, implementation, and scientific delivery of post-harvest R&D across its regional portfolio. This is a nationally recruited position for The World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg), Hyderabad, Telangana. ICRISAT is a non-profit, non-political organization that conducts agricultural research for development in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with a wide array of partners throughout the world. Covering 6.5 million square kilometers of land in 55 countries, the semi- arid or dryland tropics has over 2 billion people and 644 million of these are the poorest of the poor. ICRISAT and its partners help empower these disadvantaged populations to overcome poverty, hunger and a degraded environment through better agricultural production systems. ICRISAT is headquartered at Patancheru near Hyderabad, India, with two regional hubs and eight country offices in sub-Saharan Africa. ICRISAT envisions a prosperous, food-secure and resilient dryland tropics. Its mission is to reduce poverty, hunger, malnutrition and environmental degradation in the dryland tropics. ICRISAT conducts research on its mandate crops of chickpea, pigeonpea, groundnut, sorghum, pearl millet and finger millet in the arid and semi-arid tropics. The Institute focuses its work on the drylands and on protecting the environment. Tropical dryland areas are usually seen as resource-poor and perennially beset by shocks such as drought, thereby trapping dryland communities in poverty and hunger and making them dependent on external aid. Please visitwww.icrisat.org Duties and Responsibilities: Research and Technology Development - Design and lead applied research on post-harvest handling, predictive postharvest management, pre-cooling, cold chain, storage, packaging, minimal processing and value addition for priority vegetables (including tomato, onion, chili, okra, cucurbits, leafy vegetables and traditional/indigenous vegetables). - Conduct loss assessments along selected vegetable value chains using standard methodologies (e.g., commodity systems assessment, load tracking) and identify critical loss points and intervention options. - Adapt, test and validate low-cost and scalable technologies suited to smallholder contexts, such as plastic crates, shade structures, evaporative and solar cooling, zero-energy cool chambers, improved curing and drying, and modified atmosphere packaging. - Undertake work on food safety and quality along the chain, including pesticide residue, microbial contamination and hygiene at aggregation and market points, in coordination with WorldVeg's team. - Develop and evaluate processing and value-addition technologies for vegetables to enhance shelf life, market opportunities and farmer incomes. - Evaluate the environmental sustainability and climate resilience of post-harvest technologies and practices, including energy efficiency, food loss reduction and waste utilization opportunities. - Design and manage on-station and on-farm trials, collect and analyze data with scientific rigor, and maintain complete and auditable research records. - Contribute to the development of decision-support tools, protocols and standard operating procedures for post-harvest management, processing and value addition. Project Implementation and Management - Serve as technical lead for the post-harvest components of WorldVeg SCA projects funded by state governments, national agencies, multilateral institutions and private-sector partners. - Prepare annual work plans, budgets and procurement plans for post-harvest activities and ensure timely delivery of outputs, milestones and deliverables agreed with donors. - Supervise and mentor project officers, research associates, field staff and consultants working on post-harvest activities; ensure quality of field implementation and data. - Prepare technical and progress reports, donor reports and contributions to the SCA annual report in line with WorldVeg and donor requirements. - Ensure compliance with WorldVeg policies on confidentiality, research ethics, safeguarding, financial management, data management and open access. Capacity Development and Scaling - Develop and deliver training programs, demonstrations and extension materials on post-harvest management, processing and value Addition for farmers, farmer producer organizations (FPOs), women's collectives, traders, processors and government extension staff. - Establish demonstration units and pilot aggregation/handling facilities with partners to showcase good practices and generate evidence on costs and returns. - Support the development of business models and market linkages that reward quality, including retailers, processors, exporters and institutional buyers. - Contribute post-harvest technology packages to WorldVeg SCA's technology compendium and donor-facing briefs, including investment and return scenarios. Partnerships and Resource Mobilization - Build and maintain effective working relationships with state Departments of Horticulture and Agricultural Marketing, State Agricultural Universities, ICAR institutes (e.g., ICAR-CIPHET, ICAR-IIHR, ICAR-IIVR), NABARD, APEDA, NHB, MIDH and relevant private-sector actors. - Identify funding opportunities and contribute to the preparation of concept notes and full proposals for post-harvest and value-chain projects, in coordination with the Regional Director and the SCA proposal development team. - Represent WorldVeg in technical meetings, stakeholder consultations, policy dialogues and conferences relating to post-harvest management and vegetable value chains. Scientific Communication and Knowledge Management - Publish research findings in peer-reviewed journals and present at national and international scientific fora. - Prepare policy briefs, technical bulletins, training manuals, factsheets and digital content for diverse audiences. - Contribute to WorldVeg's global Research Program on post-harvest and food systems, sharing data, protocols and learning with colleagues across regions. - Ensure research data are curated and deposited in accordance with WorldVeg's data management and open-access policy. Other Duties - Contribute to the broader research, monitoring and evaluation, gender and social inclusion, and communications agenda of WorldVeg SCA as required. - Undertake any other duties reasonably assigned by the Management in line with the level of the position. Expected Outputs and Deliverables - Post-harvest loss assessment reports and intervention strategies for priority vegetable value chains in projects. - Validated and costed post-harvest, processing and value-addition technology packages ready for scaling by partners, supported by documented protocols, economic analyses and business cases. Annual work plans, budgets and timely technical/donor reports for all assigned post-harvest project components. - Capacity-building programs delivered to farmers, FPOs, extension officers and partner staff, with training materials in English and relevant local languages. - Peer-reviewed publication and regular contributions to WorldVeg communications and knowledge products. - Substantive contributions to concept notes or proposals for post-harvest and value-chain funding. Requirements: Technical: (specialized knowledge and expertise required to perform sp